Catalina’s visitor totals for 2015 are expected to surpass those of 2004, which was the Island’s best year for tourism on record.
Jim Luttjohann, president of the Catalina Island Chamber of Commerce, called the visitor statistics “doing extremely well” and said a variety of factors contributed to the increase.
Catalina’s visitor totals for 2015 are expected to surpass those of 2004, which was the Island’s best year for tourism on record.
Jim Luttjohann, president of the Catalina Island Chamber of Commerce, called the visitor statistics “doing extremely well” and said a variety of factors contributed to the increase.
“We still have the Jazz Trax Festival, the Marathon and New Year’s Eve coming up,” Luttjohann said. “If in the next couple months we match last year’s numbers, we will have a record number.”
Visitors to Catalina year to date (through September) are 772,487. In 2004 (the record year) at this same reporting period the visitor count was 765,535. That number includes cross channel visitors as well as cruise ship visitors. Luttjohann, who will have been on the job one year on Nov. 6, said the visitor count does not take into account personal watercraft visitors or those who arrive by helicopter.
However, Avalon Harbor reports that this September there was a 6 percent increase in people on boats and a 50 percent increase in boats anchored. “I understand helicopter visits have increased as well,” he added, noting that the chamber would like to officially track those arrivals in addition to personal watercraft visitors.
Cross channel visitors to the Island are up 6.5 percent year to date. Those are people who take the Catalina Flyer or the Catalina Express.
